Friday, October 31, 2008

Codename: Khalidi

If one is following the US presidential election closely- and one should, ye lazy bums- one could get all kinds of interesting information on the candidates from the campaign spokespeople of their contenders. For example, if you listened to the Obama campaign, then you would know that McCain is the product of a rather successful genetic experiment to clone an older, grumpier and more senile version of George W. Bush that is determined to nuke every country on the planet and serve your firstborn cooked a la king to the eating pleasure of CEO’s of Oil companies . On the other hand, if you listen to the McCain campaign, you would be surprised to find out that Barack Obama is an Islamist Theocrat, a socialist nationalist and a Marxist communist, all at the same time. Obama, it seems, has many faces, and all of them hate America.

The most recent McCain campaign meme, however, is focused on a fourth Obama: an Zionist-hating, Palestinian-loving, Kuffeyah-wearing, Israel-is-committing-genocide-against-the-Palestinian-people fifth columnist. Their proof? Well, he apparently has past associations with a Palestinian-American scholar , Rashid Khalidi , the director of the Middle East Institute of Columbia's School of International and Public affairs. What is the big deal about that? Well, he apparently does not like Israel very much, to such degree that he is rumored to have been an un-official advisor to the PLO during the Madrid Peace talks. Now, while I am shocked..shocked I tell ya..that a pleastinian-american scholar might not hold a favorable view of Israel and the Israeli occupation, I am almost speechless that a man who may have adviced the PLO- which the US government negotiates with- during peace talks is allowed to live in America today, let alone poison the minds of the airheaded susceptible C students they let into Columbia. For Shame.

But wait, the McCain campaign says: There is more. There is apparently a videotape, which they haven’t seen and that the LA Times has and refuses to release, of a party honoring Khalidi where Obama speaks, and during which Obama is rumored to have said bad things about Israel. Now, if you ask the McCain campaign how they know what’s on the tape even though they never saw it, they will respond to you that this is not really the issue, and that the real issue is that the LA Times won’t release the tape, and that is because the LA Times wants Obama to be President and knows how damaging this tape really is. The LA Times counters that they can’t release the tape because it belongs to a source for a story they did, whom they promised never to publically release. So, dear reader, being the diligent blogger that I am, I searched for the story and found it, hoping to find the clues that the McCain campaign followed to infer the existence of such a conspiracy, specifically paragraphs on what exactly Obama had said at that event. Here is what I found:

A special tribute came from Khalidi's friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi's wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.

His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It's for that reason that I'm hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation -- a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid's dinner table," but around "this entire world."

Ok… there must be something else…oh yes, here we go

At Khalidi's 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, "then you will never see a day of peace."

One speaker likened "Zionist settlers on the West Bank" to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been "blinded by ideology."

Obama adopted a different tone in his comments and called for finding common ground. But his presence at such events, as he worked to build a political base in Chicago, has led some Palestinian leaders to believe that he might deal differently with the Middle East than either of his opponents for the White House.

Ok, so Obama said that conversations are good and that common ground is better, which is clearly….un-American? I don’t know anymore, man. This election is confusing me. My guess is that they know Obama didn’t say anything personally incriminating at the event, but that the other speakers-as the quote shows- did, so they would like to create a hoopla on how “he was there” when bad things were said about Israel and didn’t do something, unlike John McCain which would’ve pulled out his Hauser and killed them all in the name of Israel’s honor, or something.

So yes, this is the news currently in the US: a focus on how guilt by association is an integral aspect of the decision making process come election day, and that if one really wants to run for political office, one shouldn’t have friends from different political and ideological backgrounds and stick to people who think and act just like him. As for me, I am awaiting the Palestinian resistance name the McCain campaign will give Obama next. Abu Hussein, anyone?

8 Egyptian bloggers are in the US for a first-hand look at the election campaigns.They will be blogging on this site through the presidential inauguration as part of a project by the Kamal Adham Center for Journalism Training and Research at The American University in Cairo.